Police: Missionaries in Mexico may have been targeted for truck

U.S. missionary slain while fleeing Mexico gunmen

JASON BUCH, San Antonio Express-News |
January 26, 2011

Nancy Davis and her husband founded the Methodist Gospel Proclaimers Missionary Association.

Photo By Handout photo

Nancy Davis and her husband, Sam Davis.

Update:The Associated Press reports that Texas authorities say a U.S. missionary fatally shot in the head in Mexico and driven to the border by her husband may have been targeted because of the couple’s expensive pickup truck.

Pharr police chief Ruben Villescas said Thursday that pickup trucks such as the 2008 Chevrolet driven by Nancy and Sam Davis are coveted by criminal organizations in Mexico.

Villescas says damage to the couple’s truck suggests that another vehicle tried to run them off the road. He says Nancy Davis was struck in the head by a bullet fired through their pickup’s back window.

Nancy Davis was pronounced dead at Texas hospital on Wednesday. Police say Sam Davis told officers they were attacked about 70 miles south of the U.S. border.

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A U.S. missionary died on Wednesday after she was shot while fleeing gunmen on a Mexican highway.

Nancy Davis, 59, and her husband, Sam, were driving on the highway from Monterrey to Reynosa, about 70 miles from the border, when gunmen in a pickup tried to force them to pull over, according to Pharr police.

The couple tried to flee, but their pursuers opened fire and a bullet struck Davis in the head.

Her husband rushed her to the international bridge at Pharr and, while stuck in traffic, began calling police and customs officers for help, according to a news release from Pharr police.

Shortly after noon, an ambulance rushed Davis to a hospital in McAllen, where she was pronounced dead.

This is the second incident in recent months of Americans falling victim to Mexico's ongoing violence. In October, a U.S. couple riding personal watercraft on Falcon Lake were fired on by three boatloads of gunmen presumed to be Mexican drug operatives, fatally striking David Hartley in the head and chasing his frantic wife, Tiffany, into U.S. waters.

Nancy Davis was from Ohio but had fallen in love with missionary work in Texas and Mexico, said Merton Rundell III, director of finance at Union Bible College in Indiana and a friend of the couple. The Davises regularly traveled to the college to speak about their missionary work.

"She was 150 percent involved in the mission work," Rundell said. "They were a team, a dedicated team."

Most of their time was spent establishing churches in areas south of Monterrey, Rundell said. He estimated they spent 80 percent to 90 percent of their time in Mexico.

"They did some teaching, did some evangelistic work," Rundell said. "But most of their labors were directly involved in establishing churches in different parts of Mexico."

The area of northern Mexico where the Davises worked and traveled has become increasingly dangerous in the past year. The states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, which borders Texas from Laredo to Brownsville, are the site of a bloody cartel war. The highway from Monterrey to Reynosa is considered dangerous, with shootouts and road blocks routinely reported.

In September, the U.S. State Department warned citizens against traveling between Monterrey and Tamaulipas and removed the children of consular staff from Monterrey.

Pharr police said they have been in contact with Mexican authorities and are working with federal agencies and the Texas Department of Public Safety to investigate Davis' killing.